Year: 2006

After 11 days, Saddam gets hungry and calls off his hunger strike.

Weaver died today from cancer. He was probably best known as Sam McCloud in the TV Series ‘McCloud’ which ran from 1970 to 1977. He started his career much earlier though.

Weaver was a struggling actor in Hollywood in 1955, earning $60 a week delivering flowers when he was offered $300 a week for a role in a new CBS television series, “Gunsmoke.” By the end of his nine years with “Gunsmoke,” he was earning $9,000 a week.

When Weaver first auditioned for the series, he found the character of Chester “inane.” He wrote in his 2001 autobiography, “All the World’s a Stage,” that he said to himself: “With all my Actors Studio training, I’ll correct this character by using my own experiences and drawing from myself.”

The result was a well-rounded character that appealed to audiences, especially with his drawling, “Mis-ter Dil-lon.”

At the end of seven hit seasons, Weaver sought other horizons. He announced his departure, but the failures of pilots for his own series caused him to return to “Gunsmoke” on a limited basis for two more years. The role brought him an Emmy in the 1958-59 season.

In 1966, Weaver starred with a 600-pound black bear in “Gentle Ben,” about a family that adopts a bear as a pet. The series was well-received, but after two seasons, CBS decided it needed more adult entertainment and cancelled it.

I’ll remember Dennis Weaver best as a guy being chased by a truck in the Steven Spielberg movie ‘Duel’.

I was very young when I first watched this made for TV movie. What freaked me out the most was the ending…the truck going over the cliff, the door swinging open, and the question – Did the driver get out? Is he still on the loose?

Good stuff.

The Tampa Tribune runs an editorial column today directed at Hillary Clinton which begs her not to run for the White House in 2008. Here’s the meat:

If you run for president, chances are good that you’ll secure your party’s nomination. But realistically, how do you think you can win the White House? You are the most polarizing figure in the Democratic Party, and your negatives among likely voters are prohibitively high. Many people simply don’t trust you. You may share your husband’s name, but what people liked about him is not transferable to you.

That’s about right. Hillary surrounds herself with some pretty smart people. That’s not the problem. The issue is, her people don’t know how to stand up to her, so they become worthless as influencers. Husband Bill is just as worthless, for the same reasons. He owes Hillary. It doesn’t matter if she can’t win. He’s fully enlisted and already at work.

Hillary is the only one who can react to the pleas of others in her party who don’t want her to run. If she respects their opinion, she won’t run. If she thinks they don’t know squat, she’ll run. It’s that simple.

I’ve been messing with the style sheet on the site today. OK, pretty much all day, which is why you haven’t seen any posts. I’ve got the layout for Internet Explorer working alright, but Firefox and Safari are hosed, for now. So, if you view the site in either of those browsers, you’ll see some funky stuff happening. Please pardon the noise, as I’m still tweaking, breaking, fixing, breaking and fixing the site.

Hope you had a less frustrating Sunday. More from me tomorrow.

Although the majority of people might remember Darren McGavin as the father to Ralphie in “A Christmas Story”, I remember him best as Carl Kolchack from “The Night Stalker”, a TV series that didn’t last long enough. That show used to scare me to death.

McGavin died today at the age of 83.

McGavin died of natural causes at a Los Angeles-area hospital with his family at his side, said his son Bogart McGavin.

McGavin made his film debut in 1945 when he switched from painter of movie sets to bit actor in “A Song to Remember.” After a decade of learning his craft in New York, he returned to Hollywood and became one of the busiest actors in television and films.

He starred in five series, including cult favorite “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” and “Riverboat,” and became a prolific actor in TV movies. Among his memorable portrayals was Gen. George Patton in the 1979 TV biography “Ike.”

He may be best recognized for his role as the hot-tempered father of a boy yearning for the gift of a BB gun in the 1983 comedy “A Christmas Story.” The film has become a holiday-season staple on TV.

The following announcement was made from McGavin’s website:

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Darren McGavin at approximately 7:10 A.M. Pacific time today, Saturday 25, 2006. Darren was just three months short of his 84th birthday. While we suspect none of us can imagine a world without the beloved, feisty little red-head, it is time to reflect, give thanks for his life and hold in reverence his memory. Darren is gone, but in many respects he will always be with us: as Carl Kolchak, fighting authority and battling monsters; the grumpy Old Man sending curses over Lake Michigan; as David Ross, the outsider, Grey Holden, captain of the Enterprise, the irascible detective Mike Hammer or any number of memorable guest star appearances, most notably as Joe Bascome on GUNSMOKE and as the washed-up old actor from “Distant Signals.”

Please take a moment in your sadness to reflect upon all the ways Darren touched your lives, say a prayer and raise a glass to toast a career which spanned over fifty years and affected us all in ways too numerous to count.

Actor Don Knotts died today. He was 81 years old.

Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory complications at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center, said Sherwin Bash, his friend and manager.

Andy Griffith, who had visited Knotts in the hospital before his death, said his longtime friend had a brilliant comedic mind and wrote some of the show’s best scenes.

“Don was a small man … but everything else about him was large: his mind, his expressions,” Griffith told The Associated Press on Saturday. “Don was special. There’s nobody like him.

“I loved him very much,” Griffith added. “We had a long and wonderful life together.”

Unspecified health problems had forced Knotts to cancel an appearance in his native Morgantown, W.Va., in August.

From Episode #103, “Opie’s Ill-Gotten Gain”

Barney: Boy, I tell you, if I ever came home with anything less than As, I just didn’t dare come home.

Andy: I don’t remember you getting all As.

Barney: I did that once. Remember? The teacher made such a fuss about it that all the kids hated me.

Andy: I don’t remember.

Barney: Well, it’s a fact. I didn’t want ’em thinking I was some kind of a snob or an egghead or something, so I buckled down and got bad marks.

Andy: That must have taken real effort.

Barney: You think you’re kidding. Listen, an IQ can be a mixed blessing sometimes. Some people want it and can’t get it. I got it and had to get rid of it. Life’s funny that way, you know?

barneyfife.com

Others: Jack Lewis |

According to a report from WorldNetDaily, Dubai Ports World is scheduled to take over 22 U.S. ports, not 6.

According to the website of P&O Ports, the port-operations subsidiary of the London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. (P&O), DPW will pick up stevedore services at 12 East Coast ports including Portland, Maine; Boston; Davisville, R.I.; New York; Newark; Philadelphia; Camden, N.J.; Wilmington, Del.; Baltimore, Md.; and Virginia locations at Newport News, Norfolk, and Portsmouth.

Additionally, DPW will take over P&O stevedoring operations at nine ports along the Gulf of Mexico including the Texas ports of Lake Charles, Beaumont, Port Arthur, Galveston, Houston, Freeport, and Corpus Christi, plus the Louisana ports of Lake Charles and New Orleans.

Previously reported have only been P&O Ports’ container operations at New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami, and New Orleans. Stevedore services also typically involve the loading and unloading of containers on and off cargo ships, as well as moving and storing containers, though often in separate facilities from where containers are initially loaded and unloaded from the cargo ships. Thus, while DPW will be operating the container terminal operations of only the six ports initially disclosed, DPW will be managing stevedore services, handling containers at a total of 21 ports, located along the Eastern seaboard from Maine to Virginia, and across the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to Louisiana.

Additionally, the website of P&O Ports North America lists that P&O provides container services at the Port of Miami, through a subsidiary identified as P&O Ports Florida, Inc. This brings to 22 the total number of American ports where DPW will be acquiring P&O operations.

With all the heat on George W. Bush and his administration’s decision to do this deal, I don’t know how it can proceed as is. There’s just too much noise right now, and the president won’t win by trying to adjust his message upon each new revelation. The best that can be done is for everyone to agree to suspend the transaction. Release all of the details and explain that this issue is really one of bad public relations, nothing more. Right now the goal should be full disclosure. Anything less will be met with further criticism and allegations of corruption, exactly the things we don’t need heading into the mid-terms.

First rule? Make sure you’ve addressed the envelope.

MILL VALLEY, CA (KNX)  — Northern California resident Steven Coburn has received a lesson in shipping protocol…always make sure you have an address on your package…especially if you’re mailing marijuana.

Coburn, 48, allegedly mailed the package, containing a half-pound of weed, with no address affixed to it.

The shipping company where Coburn took the package followed protocol by opening the package to determine whether or not the address label had been accidentally sealed inside.

“Once they opened it up and saw what was inside, they immediately called law enforcement,”said Detective Matt Lethin of the Marin County Major Crimes Task Force.

Investigators noted that the package did contain a return address and went to Coburn’s home in Mill Valley where they found another 10 pounds of marijuana worth an estimated $10 thousand.

At that point, Coburn was invited to become a guest of the city. A court date has been set for March 8th.

Imagine what the crime rate would be if criminals had half a brain.

A curfew has been extended for another day in hopes that the Iraqi government can quell the unrest which erupted after the bombing of Golden Mosque in Samarra.

Jim over at Gateway Pundit is providing great coverage of this ongoing story.

Ponder, if you will, this rather torrid story.